


It Could Have Been Different

by Trans_Queer_Punk



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/F, Gen, Light Angst, Minor Violence, Post-Season/Series 04, Trauma, yay child soldiers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:41:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21996187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trans_Queer_Punk/pseuds/Trans_Queer_Punk
Summary: Glimmer and Catra bond during their captivity together.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra & Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

Things are different now.

It was easier before everything with the portal, with Hordak Prime, with losing her mother.

Glimmer shakes her head, trying to rid herself of the thought. She can’t think about that now, not with her mother’s murderer sitting across from her in this godforsaken cell. 

She and Catra had fought at first. The confined white walls and pressing silence drove them both mad, exacerbating the tension already between them. Glimmer blamed Catra for the death of her mother. Catra blamed Glimmer for taking Adora away from her. It was inevitable that at least one of them would try to get revenge. 

Glimmer had been the first one to attack. No one would ever believe Catra if she told them. Catra was the bad guy. Glimmer, Queen of Brightmoon, would never stoop so low. 

Except she had. Catra had taken _everything_ from her- her mother, her kingdom, her sanity, and worst of all, she had broken Adora in a way that Glimmer feared she would never be able to fix.

Adora was good, very good, at faking it in public. But even She-Ra couldn’t hide the pain from her own lover. Glimmer felt Catra’s presence always, hovering over Adora like the worst kind of ghost. In the shower together, in bed next to Adora, whenever the two were alone together, Glimmer felt Catra pulling Adora away from her.

Adora would cry in her sleep. Not tears, but heartbreaking sobs that felt like a knife to Glimmer’s heart. Glimmer would hold the other woman, stroking her hair and whispering sweet nothings into her ear until Adora calmed down. Glimmer just knew it was Catra. She was the reason behind Adora’s grief.

And so, consumed with rage, Glimmer had struck Catra with all her force. She hadn’t even bothered using magic, just slapped Catra in her stupid face. Catra retaliated by slashing Glimmer’s cheek, just deep enough to draw blood. 

But they were both an even match for each other, and it was after what seemed like days of non-stop fighting that they eventually reached an unofficial truce. To Glimmer’s surprise, Catra didn’t even bother attacking her while she slept. 

They instead turned to verbal blows. Catra was an expert at this, probably because of Shadow Weaver. Every weakness, every insecurity Glimmer had was ripped open and left to fester. It was her fault for their capture, Catra would say. Adora hated her. The Rebellion had been a lost cause.

Glimmer, never one to lay down and take a beating, responded in kind. She knew about Catra’s feelings for Adora and used them against her. It was below the belt, she knew, but Catra was already fighting dirty.

After one particularly bad match of verbal sparring, Catra swears loudly and punches the wall. There is a sickening sound of bone breaking, and Catra is suddenly holding her hand to her chest. 

Glimmer expects to feel delighted at her enemy’s suffering. Instead, all she feels is concern.

“Are you okay?”

Catra looks at her, guarded and distrustful. It’s the same look Adora once had, back before the Best Friend Squad. “Why do you care?” Catra asks, tone biting.

It’s a good question, a question that Glimmer doesn’t have an answer to.

Instead of answering, Glimmer moves closer to Catra. Her fellow captive’s body tenses, preparing for an attack. Glimmer sighs and rips off a piece of fabric from her cape. She takes Catra’s hand as gently as she could, ignoring her half-hearted protests, and examines the injury. Glimmer only has basic medical knowledge, but it’s enough to recognize a broken wrist when she sees it. The piece of her cape can work as a very basic splint, but it’s not ideal, and Glimmer doesn’t have any other medical equipment. 

“Why are you helping me?” Catra growls through clenched teeth. Glimmer just ignores her and continues wrapping her wrist. “Because it’s the right thing to do,” she finally says, sounding stupid even to herself. 

“Oh yeah, you Princesses and your heroics,” Catra says ungratefully.

“Look, Catra, I am this close to breaking your other hand if you don’t shut up.” The words seem to stun Catra into silence, and Glimmer slinks back to the other side of the room when she’s done with Catra’s wrist.

Adora and Bow had better come rescue them soon.


	2. Chapter 2

It’s “night”- there’s no way to tell time in the windowless prison, but the bright white lights occasionally fade out for what feels like a few hours. Glimmer and Catra are on their respective cots, and Glimmer is trying to fall asleep. Her mind is too active, racing through all the mistakes she’s ever made and taunting her with visions of what life could have been like. Then Catra speaks.

“I wish things were different.”

Glimmer briefly considers that she is dreaming, but at this point she doesn’t care. 

“Me too,” she says, voice straining with emotions that she can’t name. 

Catra is silent for a moment, and then speaks again. “This whole thing is my fault.”

Glimmer feels a spark of anger. “It is.” Her tone is slightly harsher than she intended.

“Well don’t act like you’re perfect, Shimmer,” Catra’s reply snarks back. Glimmer sighs. She doesn’t feel like fighting right now. She can’t.  
“Okay Catra, you win. Is that what you want?” Glimmer says, and this time her voice is flat, tired, defeated. Catra seems to sense this.

“No,” Catra admits. 

_Then what do you want?_ Glimmer thinks to herself, annoyed. 

“I’m losing my mind,” Catra says, and for once, Glimmer feels the same. Every day she spends here is a day she tortures herself about the way she left Adora and Bow. Every night she falls asleep without Adora by her side is a night filled with nightmares and melancholy dreams of regret and heartbreak. At this point, she doesn’t even worry about being tortured for information by Hordak Prime. Nothing they do can be worse than what she’s doing to herself. 

“Me too,” Glimmer says. “I miss Adora.”

As soon as the words come out of her mouth, Glimmer regrets speaking them. Adora has been a point of contention between them, and Glimmer does _not_ want to start an argument. Not now, when it seems like Catra is finally opening up to her.

Instead, Catra just sighs. “I do too.”

“The last time I saw her was when we were arguing,” Glimmer says, feeling something dark grip her heart. _Regret,_ she realizes. “I was wrong. I wish I had just let it go.”

Catra laughs, humorlessly. “The last time I saw Adora was when I was trying to kill her.”

The reminder that her cellmate has spent the last two years trying to kill Glimmer’s lover doesn’t exactly make her happy, but the Brightmoon Queen holds her tongue. 

“I fucked up,” Catra says, and it takes everything in Glimmer’s power not to say something to the effect of _“Gee, you’re just now realizing?”_

Instead, she asks the burning question that’s been on her mind since she first talked to Catra. “Why’d you stay with the Horde, anyway?”

Catra makes a noise like a cat’s hiss. “Because of Adora,” she spits. Glimmer is confused. “Wait, what?”

“Of course you wouldn’t get it.”

“Try me,” Glimmer says.

“She promised to stay by my side and then she just left me, for you. Like I was nothing. I spent _years_ putting up with Shadow Weaver for her. I did everything I could for her, and she repaid me by putting me out to the curb like a piece of trash!

“So… you stayed with a fascist army partly led by your abusive mother figure just to get back at Adora for a perceived slight?” 

“Fuck you,” Catra seethes. Glimmer takes it as a yes.

“Well, I’ve done stupid stuff because I was angry too. It’s just… why something like that? You’re not just hurting yourself, you’re hurting other people.”

“Because not everything can be all peaches and rainbows and lemonade, Glitter Girl!” Catra exclaims angrily. “This is war. People kill each other. If I don’t kill the enemy, they’ll kill me.”

“But all of that could be gone if we just stopped the war,” Glimmer argues. Catra scoffs. “Yeah, like that’s ever gonna happen. Can you see the Horde calling off the war to sit around and make friendship bracelets with the Princesses?”

“No,” Glimmer admits. “But it’s all so stupid.” 

“Didn’t say it wasn’t,” Catra says. “That’s just the way it is.”


End file.
